The black side of coal dependency

Author finds U.S. reliance on energy source destructive

Steve Ruskin, Special to the News

Published August 11, 2006 at midnight

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America is the Saudi Arabia of coal. Whereas Saudi Arabia has more than 20 percent of the world's oil reserves, the United States has more than 25 percent of the world's recoverable coal reserves - approximately 270 billion tons.

Russia comes in a distant second with 176 billion tons; China has 126 billion tons, and Europe has a paltry 36 billion tons. When it comes to coal, America is king of the world. As the price of oil continues to rise, and the public and politicians search for ways to reach energy independence, it's no surprise that many in America's coal industry are making a strong push for our increased reliance on coal.

And why not? Our massive reserves virtually guarantee our supply of energy for the next 250 years at current consumption rates. In the absence of any other source of energy, with coal we could still keep our cities lit at night and, if necessary, develop coal liquefaction plants to create a diesel-like fuel out of those black, brittle rocks.

Jeff Goodell, however, isn't so optimistic. While he agrees absolutely that America's coal reserves provide a solid natural resource base that ensures our long-term energy needs, providing for those needs with coal will be problematic.

First, extracting coal is extremely destructive - oil can be pumped out of the ground from a few relatively small holes, and is easier to store and transport. But getting at coal requires extensive underground mining, or, worse, strip mining. Entire Appalachian mountains have been torn down to get at the coal underneath, and at Wyoming's massive strip mines, according to one saying, "they don't really mine coal, they just move dirt." Because it is a solid, coal is far more expensive and difficult to transport than oil.

Second, burning coal introduces vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, continuing the cycle of global warming and increasing the likelihood of more frequent and more devastating disasters like hurricane Katrina.

Third, reliance on coal, like other fossil fuels, discourages us from searching for alternative fuel sources. And finally, coal mining has a significant human cost - something Goodell is keenly aware of: "Coal is the only energy source that requires workers to put their lives on the line on a daily basis."

Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future isn't Goodell's first book on the coal industry. His earlier book, the bestselling Our Story: 77 Hours that Tested our Friendship and our Faith, was a narrative of the three days at the end of July 2002, when the nation watched riveted as rescuers raced against the clock to free nine trapped Pennsylvania coal miners. Goodell's interviews with these rescued miners are enthralling, and he appeared with them on Oprah, helping them tell their story.

But they were the lucky ones. The disaster at the Sago mine in West Virginia in January, where only one of 13 trapped coal miners survived, was much more tragic. And any loss of life in a coal mine makes salient the extra-economic cost of our reliance on coal.

Goodell seems most concerned, however, about the devil's bargain we're striking with America's coal industry. The longer we remain dependent on coal, the more we prolong the development of cleaner, more renewable energy sources and technologies. "In effect," Goodell writes, "America's vast reserve of coal is like a giant carbon anchor slowing down the nation's transition to new sources of energy."

Goodell acknowledges that there are a number of short-term solutions for using coal while we transition to cleaner energy resources. Technology already exists to construct cleaner-burning coal plants, but they cost more to build so energy companies tend to avoid them. And instead of releasing all that CO2 from burning coal into the atmosphere, these advanced power plants could actually capture much of the CO2 and pump it back into the ground ("sequestration"), preventing it from entering the atmosphere and becoming a greenhouse gas.

Big Coal's greatest strength lies in Goodell's ability to tell human stories - how individuals, families and communities are affected by the mining, production and consumption of coal. By giving us a glimpse into the difficult and dangerous lives of those directly involved in coal mining, he provides a fine counterbalance to the view that coal is a cheap source of energy, especially when the less tangible human and environmental costs are taken into account.

In 2005, controversial commercials aired on television in which fit, half-naked male and female models sweated away in a coal mine. The commercials conveyed the message that burning coal was no longer the ugly process it had long been, thanks to new technology.

While that may be partially true, Big Coal shows us that the coal industry has a long way to go before it can ever be considered sexy, to say nothing of being safe and clean.

Steve Ruskin has a doctorate in science and technology studies. He lives in Colorado Springs.

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